Electrical switches serve to connect or disconnect electrical contacts, and regardless of their construction or operating principle, offer the user of a device control of its operation. As points of intersection between man and machine, switches are indispensable, and have reached a very high level of technology. Furthermore, switches are among the few classes of electromechanical components which are desirably attractive to the eye and touch as well as adequate for the switching function. Since they are often installed on the front panel of a device, switches contribute decisively to its appearance. It is therefore not surprising that an almost incomprehensible variety of rotary switches, rocker switches, toggle switches, slide switches, key switches and pushbutton switches are offered, in every imaginable shape, color and size. The switch described herein belongs to the group of pushbutton switches.
DE-OS 31 51 501 describes a pushbutton switch which consists of a pot-shaped housing, in which a pushbutton moves. Within the pushbutton is a bar projecting into the interior of the switch, around which a switch plunger is mounted so as to swivel and slide. The switch plunger consists of a disc and a wedge-shaped appendage. Independent of the pushbutton and beneath the switch plunger is a switching rocker which is mounted by means of a bearing pin mounted in a bearing shield so as to swivel. This switching rocker is generally T-shaped with a cross-arm and a guide appendage extending perpendicularly downward. The upper surface of the cross-arm is wedge-shaped, to fit the wedge-shaped appendage of the switch plunger. The angle of inclination of the two halves of the wedge is half the swivel angle of the switch rocker. In both switch positions, one wedge half at a time is in the horizontal position. The switch plunger swivels by means of two return springs, which are clamped on different sides of the appendage between the switch plunger and the switch rocker. There is a blind hole in the guide appendage of the switch rocker into which a compression spring fits, which presses against the bottom of the blind hole at one end and against a contact cylinder at the other. The bottom of the housing has two identical roof-shaped, curved control surfaces, along which the contact cylinders can travel.
A further pushbutton switch is described in DE-OS 30 46 831, which shows a pushbutton moving with respect to a rectangular housing. On the upper surface of the pushbutton is a wedge-shaped appendage pointing inwards. The tip of this appendage serves as the rocker bearing for a switch plunger. This consists of a disc and a plunger pointing downwards. The plunger engages the wedge-shaped point of a switch rocker. The switch rocker has on either side a bearing pin, which can turn in a cavity in the housing. The wedge-shaped point is part of one control surface of the switch rocker. The control surface consists of a central peak, two sides falling away from this peak, and two facets projecting from the ends of the sides. The peak has a certain separation from the bearing pins of the switch rocker, so that in either switch position, it lies on either side of a plane defined by the bearing axis and the sliding direction. This ensures that the plunger always is in contact with one of the sides. Between the switch plunger and the switching rocker is a return spring. The pre-tension on the two opposite sides has a different value depending on the angle of the switching rocker. Attached to the switching rocker is a spring-loaded switch pin which presses on a contact rocker, which is pivoted around a fixed contact.